Introduction
We now live in a time of fantastical technological progress, with a world that increasingly relies on the aid that technology provides us. Areas of life that were once solely human, such as the creation of art and writing, have been inundated with the presence of machines that have learnt to mimic the way we think, interact with each other and create. Even more cynically, we have begun to entrust these systems with choices of life and death, with the increasing use of artificial intelligence in warfare and attacks on foreign infrastructure, both digital and physical.
In an age increasingly shaped and impacted by the rise of complicated systems and large-language models, one of the oldest institutions in the world, the Catholic Church, was required to provide guidance on how Catholics can interact with and utilise these technologies while still conforming with the teachings of the Church.
In January 2025, the Vatican released Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence, a doctrinal document co-authored by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, with the approval of Pope Francis. The title itself— "Old and New"— shows how such an ancient organisation as the Catholic Church must force itself to interact with new age philosophy, while still adhering to more than 2,000 years of theology.
This document emerged at a time when Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against the misuse of AI, notably in his 2024 encyclical Dilexit Nos and his speech to the G7 leaders, where he called for a "human-centred" approach to technology. The document aims not to attack those systems that have become so important to humanity, but rather to ensure that their continued development does not conflict (or rather does not win in a conflict) with humanity.
Biographical Note on the Authors and Context
Antique et Nova is the work of two authors, the Argentinean Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the prefect for the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, the prefect for the Dicastery for Culture and Education. The use of two central figures in the leadership of the Church highlights the cultural importance the issue of AI is, and how the Church continues to remain culturally relevant.
Cardinal Fernandez was seen by many as one of the closest allies of Pope Francis, who seeks to move the Church away from the technical jargon that a heavy reliance on doctrine provides and move it to a more 'living' relationship with Christ. He was said to be a strong influence on Pope Francis in the writing of Evangelii Gaudium, Amoris Laetitia, and Laudato Si, some of the most important works of Pope Francis during his papacy. Antique et Nova is a continuation of his previous work, seeking to move away from the defensive leadership of previous thought leaders such as Cardinal Ratzinger, to a philosophy of discussion and gentle guidance rather than condemnation. Fernandez does not seek to stop the development of AI, but merely ensure it continues to work in the interests of the people.
Cardinal Mendonça brings with him a depth of experience in connecting Catholic theology with popular cultural figures and works of literature, with previous books combining Bible study with references to authors such as Fernando Pessoa and Emily Dickinson. Mendonça throughout his career has sought to infuse religious teachings with a well written message that resonates culturally, and this is a strong theme in Antique et Nova, where he discusses the differences between human intelligence and artificial intelligence with references to Dante, and alludes to the fact that "a person's worth does not depend on possessing specific skills… but on the person's inherent dignity" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025).
The Catholic Church has a long tradition of responding to the pressing political, cultural, economic and technological developments of its time, and Antique et Nova is merely the newest instalment in a series on technological progress that stretches back to Gaudium et Spes in 1965.
Summary of Central Arguments
The first, and most significant central argument in the text is that there is a fundamental difference in the nature of intelligence between humans and machines. Antique et Nova lays out from the start that artificial intelligence has two major branches, 'Narrow AI' systems and 'General AI' systems. The Church sees both as fundamentally incomparable with human intelligence. General AI systems are outlined as "a single system capable of operating across all cognitive domains and performing any task within the scope of human intelligence", while Narrow AI systems are described as "systems… typically designed to handle specific and limited functions" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025).
Both, while impressive technological feats, are fundamentally different from human intelligence in the Church's eyes. In the document's view, human intelligence is "understood through the complementary concepts of "reason" (ratio) and "intellect" (intellectus) (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025)". The document argues that human intelligence is not merely made up in the factual sense of Truth, but in the complete engagement of reality, using the mind and soul as a collective to experience reality. While artificial intelligence is more effective in computations and recreations, it does not think. A machine which is fed data cannot reach past this reality of the data's confines, and that is what separates human intelligence from artificial intelligence. It is, to quote Aristotle, in the "natur[al] desire to know" (Aristotle & Ross, 2003) that defines human intelligence.
The second major point of discussion in Antique et Nova is the roles and responsibilities that AI should not be in control of. In this section the Church stresses to get ahead of any depiction of the Church as a Luddite operator, against all technological progress. Antique et Nova stresses that technology has "remedied countless evils which used to harm and limit human beings" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025), and that AI is in itself an amoral entity, which relies on the morality and ethics of its developers.
The misuse of artificial intelligence is a crucial element of Antique et Nova, in three specific ways; the creation and distribution of misinformation; its application in autonomous weapons; and its negative impacts on education. On the topic of misinformation, the document warns that "AI-generated fake media can gradually undermine the foundations of society" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025). The document touches upon a crucial obstacle that politicians and governments must face, with increasingly accurate deepfake technology can sow chaos, as occurred in Slovakia in 2023, where audio purported to show a leading progressive candidate conspiring to rig the election (Meaker, 2023). The audio was quickly proven to be faked, but the file had already been widely spread throughout Slovakia, weakening people's trust in the election.
The use of AI in warfare, as has occurred in the war in Gaza (MoneyControl, 2025), is a significant point of contention with AI in Antique et Nova. The document worries that "the ability to conduct military operations through remote control systems has led to a lessened perception of the devastation" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025). The basic humanity in warfare has been reduced, and therefore there will be an increase in its brutality, as combatants and civilians are reduced to pieces of data in the program of algorithms that do not operate morally but efficiently.
Finally, in regards to education, Antique et Nova seeks to ensure that, because "AI can effectively imitate the products of human intelligence", there is a risk that children will develop and be educated using AI, "potentially encouraging them to develop patterns of interaction that treat human relationships in a transactional manner" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025). The education of children in the view of the Church is sacred, and we must ensure that there is a protection of the relationships that form a child's upbringing, such as in schools, where teachers are not simply "dispensers of information" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025) but active participants in building a child's worldview, intellectual and moral growth.
The widespread access to generative AI tools risks destroying the critical thinking part of children that makes up so much of what is defined as human intelligence. While AI itself has no responsibilities to ensure a child is raised in the right fashion, it's misuse can lead to a lack of empathy and rational thinking that we must encourage in our children.
Critical Commentary
Antique et Nova is in essence and tone, a product of the papacy of Pope Francis. The document, unlike those authored under the leadership of previous popes such as Benedict XVI, is not overly technical, and does not suggest specific policies that leading AI organisations should adopt. It instead follows writings such as Evangelii Gaudium, which reads more like a sermon than an official document from the Church, with lines such as "An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral" (Francis, 2013) which feels like it should be followed by laughter rather than studious silence.
While Antique et Nova begins in a technical space, describing and defining key terms and the evolution of the Church's position on technological progress, it evolves to speak poetically about how humans are fundamentally intelligent, writing: "So much can be learned from an illness, an embrace of reconciliation, and even a simple sunset" (Mendoça & Fernandéz, 2025). The documents fundamental thesis lies within the argument that, although artificial intelligence is rapidly gaining in depth and expertise, it fundamentally differs from human intelligence.
This line of thinking, expanded upon in the paragraphs above, is in line with many in the linguistic and cultural world, such as Noam Chomsky, who wrote in a New York Times op-ed in early 2023 that: "The human mind is not like ChatGPT… the human mind is a surprisingly efficient and even elegant system that operates with small amounts of information; it seeks not to infer brute correlations among data points but to create explanations." (Chomsky, 2023).
The Church, a fundamentally anthropocentric entity, will naturally argue that, just as God entrusted humans with the sole ability on Earth to think critically, us humans are not able to replicate our intelligence exactly. In the view of Antique et Nova, what we have done is develop a system that outputs the correct mathematical function without understanding what multiplication, addition or any other mathematical concept is.
This viewpoint is not shared widely in the tech and AI world, however. Leaders such as Sam Altman from OpenAI have already stated that "we are on the path to a system that can reason, have memory, and solve problems at a level comparable to humans" (Imagination in Action, 2023). Many techs CEO's and engineers hold the belief that human intelligence is not a supernatural ability, but merely a reflection of the brain's extraordinary levels of computational ability that machines will eventually be able to rival.
Many however agree with Antique et Nova's arguments on the negative implications of AI in politics, education and warfare. Tristan Harris, the leader of the Centre for Humane Technology, stresses that "While we've been upgrading the machines, we've been downgrading the social fabric, our attention spans, our relationships, our democracy, our civility." (Harris, 2019). The increasing capacity of artificial intelligence is simultaneously lowering human's intellectual capacity, as we look to replace our own critical thinking with the product of algorithms such as ChatGPT. In this matter the Church's stance is quite prescient; human intelligence, as integral to humans as our heart, is at risk.
Even our own humanity is being threatened by the evolving capabilities of artificial intelligence. The delegation of warfare to complicated algorithms provides a relief for those carrying out attacks, but risks an expansion in the brutality that victims receive, as these algorithms do not value human life and morality. As we have seen on television screens over the past four years, from Ukraine to Palestine, the removal of human intervention in warfare and their replacement with drones and facial-recognition programmes results in tragedies, as civilians are not accounted for in the code of many of these software's that have become ubiquitous in modern warfare, either unintentionally or intentionally.
In many ways Antique et Nova is the perfect encapsulment of Papa Francisco's leadership. Authored by two allies of him, with a prioritisation of gentle guidance over condescension, the document outlines not just the negative consequences of the rise of artificial intelligence but also its uses, and it highlights the beauty and uniqueness of human intelligence. The document is in line with previous writings of the papacy and continues the trend of progressiveness that his leadership was known for. While the Church's view deviates from the tech world, it is broadly in line with the cultural world, an indication of the success Pope Francis had modernised the establishment. The document seeks not to hold back technological progress, but ensure it is aimed at the advancement of society.